He reached back for me, his eyes wide.
I kicked to the side, trying to get out of the monster’s jaws, but it caught my leg.
I screamed, grasped my knife, and stabbed it into the monster’s mouth, right above its teeth.
It didn’t release its hold.
I stabbed again.
And again.
And again.
Finally, it opened its mouth.
I kicked with my good leg, using the current to help me, and ignored the scorching pain in my leg.
I surfaced but continued to swim. Kane stood on the beach, looking out at the ocean, no doubt trying to find me.
Good, he was safe.
The monster surfaced, and Kane zeroed in on it, shooting a huge fireball at the thing.
It roared in pain, and I took advantage of the distraction, swimming toward the mainland as fast as I could, using the current to help me, but my ability to do so had gotten weaker from using it so much in such a short time.
The monster spotted me and altered its course.
Caracas!
I was so close. So close.
The monster’s jaw opened, poised to bite me in half.
This was it.
This was how I died.
I swam harder, using my injured leg despite the pain.
I would not go down without a fight.
Its jaws began to close, teeth about to sever me at the waist.
Chapter Ten
A ball of flame hit the teeth above me, slowing the monster. It howled and hesitated, allowing me to surge forward. By the time it recovered, I’d reached the shallows. The beast stopped, unable to follow me into the shore. I swam until I could get to my feet. Kane was there, pulling me up by shoulders, helping me to stand in the chest deep water and helping me wade back to the shore. I leaned against him while his arm wrapped around me. My breath came out in pants. When the waters were waist deep, Kane lifted me up and carried me the rest of the way.
I was alive.
When we reached the shore, Kane set me down in the sand and began inspecting my leg. His voice had an edge of desperation as he said, “Talk to me.”
My lungs burned while I continued sucking in air. I coughed up the last bit of sea water from my lungs. Finally, I could form words. “You saved me.”
“I saved you so that I can kill you,” he growled. He prodded my wound, and I hissed in pain. He glared at me, his eyes filled with a mixture of anger and fear. “If you ever try to sacrifice yourself for me again—”
I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. Tears slipped down my cheeks “Thank you.”
He hugged me back and then leaned far enough away so he could look into my eyes. “I mean it. Don’t ever do that again.”
“No promises,” I whispered and pulled his face to me and kissed him lightly on the lips.
His brow furrowed, but he kissed me back, tightening his grip on me.
“We need to disinfect and bandage that leg,” he said when he pulled back.
He helped pull my pack from my shoulders and grabbed the first aid kit. I lay still and let him work on my leg.
He rubbed his hands together and then placed them over my leg. “I’m going to heal it a bit, but I won’t be able to fully heal this. It’s a severe wound, but I should be able to get the bleeding to stop.” Warmth emanated from his hands as magic seeped into my leg, making it tingle. “I should be able to heal it a bit more tomorrow.”
I lay flat on my back and spread my arms out to my sides. The sun beat down on me from above, and I closed my eyes against it. Slowly, my heart rate settled down and my panting subsided. Kane tugged at my leg and I could feel cloth being wrapped around it in a bandage.
Once finished, Kane sat beside me, his body casting a shadow over my face to block out the sun. “How do you feel?”
I opened my eyes and met his worried ones. “Tired. I’m going to be a hindrance and not able to move fast like this.”
He stood, bent back down, and scooped me up with an arm beneath my legs and an arm around my back. “I’ve got you, siren. You’ll be fine.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and leaned my head on his shoulder. “My hero,” I whispered.
He snorted and headed deeper into the mainland and off the beach. The steady rocking of his footsteps in the cradle of his arms made me tired, but I didn’t want to fall asleep on him and become completely useless. I kept watch over his shoulder to make sure nothing followed us. Slowly the sea slipped from my view, which saddened me the slightest bit. My lids grew heavy, so I started talking to stay awake. “Did you know that there are sharks with bioluminescence?”
“What?” he asked.
“The day before I was supposed to leave, sharks attacked. They had bioluminescence and could also make themselves basically invisible in the pitch black of the night sea. One broke through my window in its attempt to eat me.”
He huffed a laugh. “So, you’ve always had great luck.”
I smiled. “Yes.”
“How did you escape the sharks?” he asked.
“I had this knife,” I said and indicated the knife he’d put back in my sheath at some point. “I stabbed it in the nose, and then our guards dispatched them.”
“Guards? What did they do?”
“They have electric tridents. Though I’m not sure if they killed the sharks.”
“What happened after that?” he asked.
“One of the guards accused me of breaking the boundary that the elders put up,” I whispered.
“Did you stab him?”
I snorted. “No. I wanted to, but I didn’t.” My humor faded. “Then he told me none of them would care if I returned.”
Kane’s grip on me tightened.
“Then one of the other guards punched him for me and told me to be safe. So, it was just another day in my life.” I let out a slow breath to keep myself from crying.
He stopped walking and pulled me away from him slightly.
I offered him a fake smile, trying to tell him I was okay.
He kissed my cheek. “I would have punched him, too.”
My smile became genuine, and I laid my head back on his shoulder.
Kane began walking again. “How big is our house going to be?”
“What?”
“How big is our house going to be?” he asked again.
“Oh. I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought about it.” But now my mind began reeling. “It depends. Are we building a tree house or a house on the ground?”
“Ground. We can build a house for Hiruko in the trees, but I want to sleep on the ground.”
“Fair enough. Well, we need a room big enough for a bed that fits two.” I snapped my mouth shut, and my cheeks warmed.
“Right,” he said, not seeming to notice my embarrassment.
I let out another slow breath and then continued, “But I’d like to have a room where we can sit with others in addition to the bedroom.”
“Living room,” he said.
“Huh?”
“It’s called a living room. It’s the room where people sit with others, or even just by themselves, that does not have a bed in it. Usually it has a couch and a table or something.” His comforting voice rumbled through his chest, and I laid my hand against it.
“Okay. So, a bedroom and a living room. And, an area for cooking.” I gnawed on my lip a moment as I debated if we needed anything else.
“Do you want kids? We’ve never talked about that,” he said softly.
I pulled away from his chest and looked up at him, but he wasn’t looking at me. This had all been a fun fantasy, but now the tone changed.
“I never thought about kids before,” I whispered and looked over at my legs. “I never thought I would find a man who wanted to be with me, so I never thought I would find a man who wanted to have kids with me either.”
“You’re beautiful,” he whispered. “Maybe a little crazy, but that’s something you get used to prett
y quickly.”
I pulled back and caught him smirking. He was teasing me.
“I’m being serious here. Pouring my heart out, you know?”
He shrugged, my body going up and down with it. “So am I.”
I laughed and leaned back against him. His warmth seeped into me as his motion rocked me. I’d never felt so secure in my life. Most of my life was spent alone, with no one to take care of me. No one cared whether I hurt, or slept, or ate. Some of the others even ridiculed me or ostracized me. It felt good to be carried and to be cared for. I really wanted to continue my life with Kane. Even though we’d only known each other a short time, it felt as though I’d known him my whole life.
“You should think about it,” he said. “Kids, that is.”
“What about you? Do you want kids?” I asked.
“Someday,” he said. “Now would be incredibly inconvenient.”
“You could carry me and a kid. You’re strong enough,” I teased.
“Yeah, but they make a lot of noise. We wouldn’t be able to hide from a wolfcupine or an oiline with a crying baby.”
He had a point, and as I imagined it, my stomach tightened. “But if you lived underwater, you wouldn’t have to worry about that. You just have to worry about a sharktopus stealing it or something.”
“What if you were hiding from sharks in a house?” he asked. “Pretty sure the baby would give you away.”
“You do have a point.” I frowned.
“So, no kids until the stone is found.” He adjusted his hold on me.
“Agreed.” I scrunched up my nose as I thought about having a child with Kane. “What would a half-mage and half-siren baby develop into? Would it have the ability to breathe underwater and have magic? Or would it just have one of our abilities?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t think a siren and mage have mated recently.”
“I’ve never heard of it.” Because I was higher up, I could look over his shoulder again. I couldn’t even see the slightest hint of the ocean, even the salty scent of the air had succumbed to the scent of pine.
“I doubt they would come out some abomination,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s not like you have gills and I don’t.”
I shook my head. “Right.”
He stopped and set me down on a log, putting the pack at my feet while he unscrewed the lid on the canteen. “I need a break.”
I pulled out one of the fruits we had taken from Hiruko’s grove, unwrapped it from the leaf I’d grabbed, and took a bite. After another bite, I handed it to Kane, who settled down beside me. He handed me the canteen, and I took a drink while he ate. Once we finished, I wrapped what was left of the fruit back up and put it in my pack.
We sat a little while longer, and then Kane picked me up and resumed walking.
“Well, at least we didn’t see pirates on the ocean this time,” I said, smirking.
“I would have preferred pirates,” he grumbled.
“Did you see what the monster trying to eat us looked like? I only saw the inside of its mouth.”
He sighed and shook his head. “You’re way too nonchalant about almost being eaten. Yes, I saw it.”
“What did it look like?” I asked.
“I don’t know. It had a huge snout-like mouth and seemed to be scaled. It had a huge tail with scales on it too,” he said.
“Like a snake?” I asked.
“Sort of, but the snout was more lizard-like,” he said, tilting his head as he thought about it.
“Interesting,” I whispered. “So, like a snake and a lizard mixed together?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“A snizard,” I said, smirking.
He threw back his head and laughed. “Snizard? Yes!”
“Let’s not meet any more snizards, okay?” I shivered in his arms.
“I’ll try my hardest.” He nodded.
“I think the snizard is my most hated animal so far. Well, and that carnt.”
“Carnt?” he asked.
“Carnivorous plant.”
He chuckled. “Ah, yes. The plant that almost killed you.”
“Yeah, that one.”
“That was really frightening.” His voice grew quiet and serious. “I thought you were going to die. I don’t like feeling helpless, yet I’m often helpless in situations where you’re about to die.”
“You saved me from the snizard,” I reminded him.
“Barely. It was about to snap you in half.”
“I know.” I frowned. “I was certain it was going to tear me apart. I thought it still might even after you hit it with fire.”
“I did, too,” he whispered, clutched me tighter, and then lifted me to kiss my lips. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“What’s your favorite color?” I asked.
“Silver,” he said.
“What? How can silver be your favorite color?” I frowned and scrunched my brows. “Wait. I asked this already and you said before your favorite color was blue, I think.”
He shook his head. “Silver is definitely my favorite color.”
“What was silver where you live?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him. “I don’t remember seeing anything silver.”
“Your eyes,” he said, smiling as he met my gaze. “Your eyes are silver.”
I blushed and rested my head against his chest, hiding my face. “Flirt.”
He didn’t respond, and I didn’t need to look at him to know he was smirking. How many miles had we gone inland with him carrying me? It could only have been a few, and I had no idea where we were headed. But Kane seemed to have a plan, so I let him continue without bothering him. The sun sunk lower on the horizon, so we were cast entirely in shadow. My tiredness grew, and I stifled a yawn.
“We need to make camp,” he said, looking up in the trees where we were walking.
I had stopped peering over Kane’s shoulder and watching our backs a while ago. It worried me that I’d gotten too comfortable. I needed to pay better attention.
“These trees don’t look like they can support us both sitting on the same limb,” I whispered. I didn’t really like the idea of sleeping away from Kane.
“I’ve got an idea,” he said. He set me down, drew my knife, and set it in my lap. “Don’t get in trouble while I do this, okay?”
“I’ll try.”
He smirked, kissed me, and then disappeared.
A moment later, I spotted him climbing a tree nearby, scaling the trunk effortlessly. How did he make it look so easy? It just wasn’t fair.
Then I lost sight of him. I had no idea what he was doing, so I watched our surroundings, ready to yell a warning if something was coming after us. I listened to the birds and bugs singing their evening songs, which made me feel better that it was unlikely a wolfcupine was nearby.
Kane jumped down from the tree he’d been in, our pack missing. “I’m going to have you hang onto my back, okay? Then, I’ll climb up the tree while you just hold on.”
“Okay.” I nodded. He sat down in front of me, and I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. I hissed in pain as I wrapped my injured leg around him.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Ready.” I gripped him tighter.
He stood, holding onto my thighs as he did, so I didn’t fall. Once he was fully upright, he adjusted my position slightly, and then climbed the tree. Once again, he made it look easy, and I had no idea how he managed to do that with me clinging to his back like a baby monkey.
“Doing okay?” he asked.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that? You’re the one carrying an extra person.” I chuckled.
“You don’t weigh much.” He continued our ascent while I clung to him. “Plus, I enjoy climbing trees.”
“Where are we sleeping? Did you find a tree branch high enough up that could support us?” I asked.
“You didn’t watch what I was doing?” he asked.
“No, I couldn’t see, so I was looking for any
potential dangers.”
“Ah, well, this will be a fun surprise then,” he said, chuckling.
He climbed onto a branch that I wasn’t certain could hold our weight and then spun me around, so I was hanging onto the front of him.
“What are you—”
He tossed me.
I screamed. Then I landed on something. I turned my head and found myself lying on a net that was secured to three different trees.
“You jerk!” I yelled at him.
He smiled and then walked along one of the ropes and sat down on the net beside me. “Sorry, but that was the easiest way to get you over here.”
“You could have warned me,” I grumbled, punching him lightly in the shoulder as soon as he was close enough.
“But then I wouldn’t have been able to see your face. You thought I was trying to kill you. That hurts, you know? I just saved your life. Why would I try to kill you?” He stuck out his bottom lip in a pout.
I glared at him. “You threw me off of a tree. I couldn’t see the net, so I had no idea what you were doing.”
“I thought I had earned back your trust, but clearly I was wrong.” He sighed. “I guess I have to work on that still.”
“You might earn it better if you didn’t throw me out of a tree without warning.” I growled.
He pulled me into the center of the net, which groaned. I stiffened, but he just smiled and brushed hair out of my face. “It’s not going to fall. I secured it well.”
“I’m not looking down, but are we high enough up?” I asked.
He nodded, kissed me, and said, “We need to sleep. Stop worrying and get comfortable.”
I obeyed, draping my injured leg over the top of his legs, and laid my head on his chest, with my arm resting on his stomach. I could barely see him in the pitch black as night fell completely. The evening song around us changed a bit as different bugs sang, and the birds quieted. Just past the treetops, a bright, round half-moon shined down.
“Kane,” I whispered.
“Hm?” he asked, rubbing one of my arms.
“Thank you for not giving up on me,” I whispered.
He hugged me and kissed the top of my head. “Thank you, for not giving up on me, too.”
“Go to sleep. You’ve got to carry me more tomorrow.” I snuggled my cheek against his chest.
Stone Heart Page 13
